Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Last Tuesday at 10:00am, Bainbridge High School Drama won third place for the One-Act Play Competition at Cairo High School.

Bainbridge High School competed in the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) 13A division for the Southwest Georgia region.  Bainbridge High School Drama performed a 55 minute One-Act Play called “The Diviners”. “The Diviners” tells the story of Buddy Layman, a disturbed young man who has a special gift of finding water due to the trauma of almost drowning and losing his mother in the same way. Layman forms a friendship with C.C Showers, a former preacher who grapples with his own demons, in Southern Indiana during the Great Depression era. A total of 20 students were involved either on stage or cast and crew. After two months of rehearsal, Leigh Powell, Bainbridge High School’s Chorus, Literacy, and Drama instructor, stated the play went well due to the students’ performance of the characters, “It is something that the students had to take with a good bit of severity, as far as how to portray the characters in a respectful way while also maintaining a little bit of humor and lightheartedness. We have some really great actors this year that did a great job pulling that out.”

Powell explained that she selected “The Diviners” due to the selection process, maturity, and competition base. “I probably wouldn’t perform for a competition just because it doesn’t give a lot of ability for the actors to show any kind of growth or evolution. It doesn’t give the actors any use of staging or space because we get evaluated on picturization, listening to response, and characters responding to one another. She continued. “So, those aspects are something that I try to keep in mind whenever we’re selecting.”

Moreover, the creation of the costumes were inexpensive, but for the set “we got free palettes that they had at Rural King as they were moving in. So, we used wood from that, and then we borrowed costumes from Bainbridge’s Little Theatre, Cotton Hall, and Swamp Gravy in Colquitt just because I wanted to focus this show not on extravagant costumes or sets, but still fit within that time period and highlight the action on stage.”Powel explained.

In addition, Powell exclaimed her favorite part of the play hits close to home, “It talks about how buddy was saved by his mother, and there are moments where he talks a lot about how he can’t find his mother, and how he misses her so bad and wants to see her again.” She continued. “I think connecting with the cast and crew on that level, as far as being able to talk about mon. My mother passed away a few years ago and so that was like an emotional piece for me, and being able to talk through with the students and being like this is what that feels like, this is what grief feels like. Navigating all those feelings in a way that we can understand so that was pretty nice to be able to be vulnerable.”

Furthermore, Powell wants to express recognition to the cast of Buddy Layman played by senior John Stout, “He has worked hard to get where he is now. He started off as a crew member back when he was a freshman and sophomore. He has really gained a lot of confidence and worked his way up to pull a lead like that is something that I don’t want to say he didn’t have in him, but it shocked me.” Powell would also like to give a shout out to JoAnn Moore, band and drama teacher, “who had everything planned out to where the kids could be successful when running sound boards, lighting up the stage. She was able to work with students to make sure the production flowed.” Eventually, Powell would like to perform the full version of “The Diviners” when the performing arts center is opened.